


The Blue Notebook

by Calyx_Lytsong



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: Emotionally Cold Character Meets Cinnamon Roll, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-19 00:49:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29742465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calyx_Lytsong/pseuds/Calyx_Lytsong
Summary: Kai thaws out and finds his feelings with the help of a blue notebook from Aichi’s bag. Starts a week after episode 1.It's only teen rated because Kai swears a lot in his internal monologue.Based on original series tsundere Kai, not perfectly nice reboot KaiI kind of got the notebook idea after binge reading Ao Haru Ride.Hope you like. ❤️ 📖  Let me know!
Relationships: Kai Toshiki & Miwa Taishi, Kai Toshiki/Sendou Aichi
Comments: 5
Kudos: 9





	The Blue Notebook

Kai stared at the notebook, lying on the floor next to his chair at Card Capital. He tried to make sense of what he was seeing. **Kai** written in a fancy script. But why was his name written in the back of Aichi’s notebook?

That Morikawa idiot had clumsily kicked over Aichi’s schoolbag when he passed by the table Kai had just finished a fight at, dumping the contents over. Kai hadn’t cared enough to call him back to rectify the situation. He hadn’t cared about much of anything for a long while now. But he had been waiting for Miwa to bring back drinks from the vending machine, and he had lazily glanced down at the pencil case and notebook that had slid out of the bag. A blue notebook. Of course, he thought with some snark. Everything about that kid was Blaster Blade blue, from his hair and eyes to his clothes, to his pencil case and notebook. Kai had seen the writing and his brain had frozen….

The notebook had fallen open to the last pristine page, the page no one ever really reached during a school year. The place to write important things so you could find them quickly. A secret place, under normal circumstances. But this wasn’t normal. Why would the boy he had met (again) and taught last week and then given Blaster Blade to (for the second time in his life, by the way) write Kai’s name in his notebook? (Kai’s brain shied away for the umpteenth time from examining why he had given Blaster Blade away...twice!) Ah, it probably wasn’t _him_ the page was referring to. There had to be other Kais. 

His eyes flicked over to where Aichi was, across the room. He had just finished a match against that annoying Kamui toddler. Aichi’d won if his high-pitched yelling was any indication. Aichi was practically a soprano when he was excited. Kai snorted. Aaaaaand it looked like Aichi was headed back this way. Kai froze, then leaned down and scooped the notebook and pencil case back into the bag in a lightning-quick fluid motion, kicking the flap shut. He did _not_ need the little blueberry realizing that he had seen...whatever the _hell_ that was. He slouched down into his seat, trying to forget it. Trying to regain his usual fog of ennui. Intensely disliking the fact that it was out of reach.

*********************

A few weeks later, and of course, he was at Card Capital. He had stopped going to the old shop he used to frequent before Miwa dragged him here. His mind shied away from why that might be. But not fast enough...it was because of Aichi. He told himself that it was just because the boy was fast becoming a threat to his superiority at Vanguard. Not because he _enjoyed_ their matches. He had an imagination that rivaled Kai’s… He thought back to how beat up the kid had looked years ago when he had gifted him his favorite card. New scrapes layered on old bruises. He was still scrawny these days. Nothing like personal turmoil and internal grief to nurture one’s imagination! Kai chuckled to himself darkly. He should know.

He was waiting for Aichi to come back from talking to Misaki at the counter. Nobody else was in this corner of the shop. He could just see a bit of blue sticking out from Aichi’s bag, so close to his foot. His hand moved of its own volition, scattering his deck over the table, half of the cards falling onto the floor. He leaned down ostensibly to pick them up, carefully sliding the notebook up and thumbing the back cover out, just enough to see. 

His heart skipped a beat. The **Kai** had gained a flowery **Toshiki** underneath it. What the literal _hell?_ He slid it back down in the bag, equilibrium blown. A moment later, a sunny-faced Aichi came back to the table clutching a pair of booster packs. “I-I got you a pack, too, Kai-kun. G-Good luck!” he stammered as he held one out, blushing. 

Kai stared at him in horror. “No thanks” he ground out as he grabbed his jacket and cards and got the hell out of there.

******************

Kai would try to stay away for days at a time. Whatever kind of obsession Aichi had about him needed to be nipped in the bud. He wasn’t the type to adopt some needy kid and pretend to be a big brother. Familial warmth was hardly even a memory at this point. But the need to see him and have a decent card fight would always win out. When he saw Aichi, he tried to clutch his icy demeanor around himself like a shield, not realizing it was slowly melting around him. He didn’t want to admit to himself that he was enjoying watching the kid blossom, gaining confidence at the table. Shit, it was the first time he had enjoyed _anything_ since the old days with Ren. Nope, nope not going there. Screw emotions or they’d screw you.

Miwa caught his scowl from across the table. He was ~~one of the few people~~ the only person that would put up with Kai in one of his moods. Kai tested that devotion sometimes when he was feeling particularly salty, but Miwa never wavered. (Apparently, _Miwa_ was the type to adopt some needy kid -him- he thought with dark humor.) He followed Kai’s gaze to where Aichi was playing against some unknown older girl with a Fukuhara High uniform. Aichi’s skill was starting to be rumored about, and people sometimes came to the store looking to fight “the blue-haired kid”. He played with abandon, throwing his arm up in the air and yelling out color phrases before slamming his units down on the table. Kai ruthlessly squashed down an unidentified feeling of warmth in his chest. 

Aichi felt his gaze and looked up to be pinned in Kai’s sharp stare. He instantly beamed at him and turned crimson.

“Kid came a long way, huh?” Miwa said. “Never thought he’d be able to challenge a stranger, much less play with that kind of flair. Reminds me of you, how he plays now.”

Kai held Aichi’s gaze until the younger boy squirmed and looked away. He played that game, sometimes. Twelve seconds this time. Impressive.

Kai turned his attention back to his friend. “I don’t know how you can say that, you can’t look him in the eye without him blushing like a tomato.”

“Ummm, Kai. He only does that with you. He stopped that with the rest of us weeks ago. Thought you should know…”

Kai’s head whipped back towards Aichi’s corner. Sure enough, the boy had been watching him again. His color had subsided, but he turned bright red again.

“Fuck.” Kai bit out.

As usual. he ran.

********************

Over a week later, and Kai was laying on his favorite park bench in the sun. Sometimes when it was bright overhead like this, he could pick out patterns in the colors it made behind his eyelids. He could lose a bunch of time that way. The downside was that his thoughts churned, without a distraction.

“K-Kai-kun?” 

His heart stuttered and bloomed. _Ooops, He thought. I meant Shit! He found me!_

He cracked open an eye. “What do you want, Aichi?”

“I- uh... We just missed you at the shop. I-It’s been a while. I was wondering if you were doing okay.”

The boy looked all sad and disheveled. His cheeks were pink and his hair was damp with sweat around the edges. He looked like a cute abandoned puppy. The kind you wanted to cuddle on your lap. 

_Shit. Shit. Shit. I must have heat stroke,_ Kai thought. He sat up and fished around in his pocket for a 500 yen coin. He sighed and held it out. “Hey. Go buy us a couple of drinks from the machine. You look like you have heat stroke.”

Aichi’s face lit up, and he dropped his bag on the bench next to Kai. He looked ecstatic at not being instantly dismissed. Kai’s heart betrayed him by giving another pang.

“Okay. Calpis, right? Be right back!” Aichi waved back at him as he trotted over to the far side of the plaza.

Kai eyed the bag. He shouldn’t. He _really really_ did not want to know. Except he _did._ More than he didn’t... He looked at Aichi’s retreating back and quickly flipped open his bookbag, locating the blue notebook and pulling it out. He sat for a second, it was cool in his sun-warmed hands. He took a breath, feeling strangely like he was finally about to open a door that had been locked for a long time.

He flipped to the back page. It was full of doodles edge to edge. Hearts. Hydrangeas. Little Vanguard cards. Blaster Blades and Dragonic Overlords. And everywhere, everywhere between them: Kai. Kai-Kun. Toshiki.

He snapped it closed and returned it quickly to the bag. He sighed. His chest hurt like his heart was thawing out. He didn’t like it. He huffed a laugh. _Stop lying to yourself, damned coward._

Aichi came back soon after, handing Kai his frosty Calpis and his change. He beamed. “Thanks for the drink, Kai-Kun. I’m really glad I found you!”

He sat, a bit too close, really. But Kai let it go. Aichi screwed the top off of his bottle and threw his head back to drink deeply. Kai watched a drop of sweat roll down the curve of his neck as he swallowed, with deep interest. A sudden heat bloomed low in his belly. He sighed in defeat. So this is how it ended. Brought low by this _boy._

Aichi finished drinking and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. He turned to look at Kai questioningly, just a bit of a blush.

Kai couldn’t help himself. He reached out a hand and tucked Aichi’s sweaty blue bangs behind one ear. In that instant, he dismissed fight, or flight, and chose _fate_. 

“C’mon Aichi." He sighed and stood up. "Let’s go back to the shop. I challenge you to a card fight.”


End file.
